The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty (8 page)

A manager who delivers results accomplishes what he is hired to do. He makes things happen. If he should fail to meet a deadline or make a goal, he doesn’t blame his team. The buck stops with him and he takes the hit. After a disheartening loss for the San Francisco 49ers in the 2011 season, new coach Jim Harbaugh told the assembled press that the blame rested with him. He didn’t blame the players or the conditions. He had not prepared them enough for the defense they would face. In the first nine games of the year, Harbaugh had built a tremendous reservoir of trust and respect among his players. He wasn’t going to deplete that reservoir by assigning blame to anyone but himself. The 49ers reached the playoffs that season for the first time since 2002, losing the NFC title game in overtime. Many of the players said that Harbaugh was the most inspiring coach they had played for. In sports and in business, players need to trust their leader.

Managers who get better are constantly soliciting feedback, reading books, and learning new skills to keep up with the pace of change in today’s world. When Apple sends out a customer survey, its stores are “growing.” When an Apple Store manager asks employees for feedback, he’s growing. Apple managers are urged to tackle the sixty-seven leadership competencies discussed in the Korn/Ferry book,
FYI: For Your Improvement
. Some Apple Stores have several copies of the book available for their staff. No one expects
an employee to master all sixty-seven competencies, but they are encouraged to improve in one or two areas a year as part of their ongoing personal and professional development.

A manager who confronts reality tackles tough issues head-on. She doesn’t let things fester. She shares bad news as well as the good news. She’s also quick to address “opportunities” to improve customer interaction. (Apple Retail employees seem to avoid the word
problem
.) For example, if a manager sees that an employee had a difficult time with a customer, she might address the situation by asking, “Can you tell me about that experience? I’d like to know your perspective, and then I’ll tell what I saw. Together we can work at creating an opportunity to enhance the customer experience.” Avoiding the word
problem
or other negative words helps establish trust, which will encourage the employee to provide feedback and communicate more openly (as you will learn more about in
Chapter 5
).

Trustworthy managers disclose expectations right at the start. They never assume that everyone knows what’s expected of them. Apple employees know that they are expected to walk through the Apple five steps of service (discussed in Part II).

Expectations must be set for customers, as well. For example, customers will often show up at the Genius Bar at an Apple Store to ask questions or have repairs made. If they show up without an appointment, an Apple employee might set expectations: “We can accommodate you this time, but if you come in next time without an appointment, we might not be as lucky. Do you know how to make an appointment online? If not, I’d be glad to show you.” I’ve seen customers walk into an Apple Store and complain that they can’t get served immediately (or they voice their complaint on their social networks, like Twitter and Facebook). I believe that if these customers had been served before without having expectations set for next time, they come to expect immediate service and they get
angry if they don’t get it. Setting proper expectations can resolve these types of issues.

As discussed earlier, Disney is another brand known for creating a unique customer experience. Both Apple and Disney hire for attitude and personality, but both brands have very different expectations when it comes to a person’s appearance. According to Disney’s website, its Walt Disney parks have become famous for a friendly, classic appearance—the Disney look. The look is clean, natural, and unpolished and avoids cutting-edge trends or extremes. The Disney website has a long list of requirements that covers body alterations, hair, fingernails, and makeup. If you don’t care to adhere to the requirements, you need not apply. The expectations are clearly spelled out.

Accountable managers take responsibility for their section of the sales floor or their team members. They do not blame others when things go wrong. They take full responsibility for the behavior of their employees in a sales environment. Billionaire Warren Buffett once said that “when the tide goes out you see who’s swimming naked.” The same holds true for quarterly goals. When goals are missed, you see which leaders are fearless and trustworthy and which are spineless and untrustworthy. I recall working for a PR firm during one bad quarter when all the senior leaders started pointing the finger at each other and individual units within the department. It was discouraging and disheartening. Not surprisingly, the PR firm soon became known for uninspiring managers and disappointed clients. I left when I realized the firm did not meet my internal standards for excellence. Many of the other A-players left as well in the months to follow. People who are at the top of their game want to work for leaders whom they trust and admire.

Managers who listen take proactive steps to understand the needs and desires of their internal and external stakeholders: employees and customers. The Apple credo card states, “We value each
customer problem as an opportunity to shine. We listen and respond immediately to all feedback, taking personal initiative to make it right. We encourage open dialogue with our people and customers to share ideas about improving our stores, our processes, and our performance.”
³

Some Apple managers whom I’ve met are very humble when it comes to this trust component. “We don’t get caught up in the illusion that we know everything or have all the right answers.” In Part II, you will learn about the Apple five steps of service. Step four is to “listen” for any unresolved issues, concerns, or questions.

Managers who keep their commitments do what they say they are going to do. If a manager promises an employee that he will address a concern at the end of the shift, he’d better keep that commitment. Managers who overpromise and underdeliver will lose the trust of their team very quickly. This point goes with delivering results: managers who can deliver results are more likely going to follow through with their commitments.

Fearless managers extend trust. They don’t withhold trust because some risk is involved. Of course, they are careful, but they demonstrate a propensity to trust their employees. Covey offers the following advice: “Extend trust abundantly to those who have earned your trust. Extend conditionally to those who are earning your trust.”
⁴
According to Covey, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust—distrust—is suspicion. “When you trust people, you have confidence in them, in their integrity, and in their abilities.” Trust is established when everyone on the team—the newbie, the part-timer, the veteran, feels like an important part of the team. “Smart leaders create an environment that encourages appropriate risk-taking, an environment that makes it safe to make mistakes,” says Covey.

The fastest way to lose trust—at Apple or any other company—is to violate these thirteen principles. Trust will be shattered if a
manager fails to speak clearly, seeks personal gain at the expense of the team, withholds information, distorts information, or refuses to listen.

Integrity and trust together are an important competency in the Lominger Korn/Ferry leadership system applied at Apple and many other brands. “Integrity and trust are on almost every success profile we see. It is a basic threshold requirement to be a part of the team. Without it, almost nothing else matters.”
⁵
The Lominger system recommends that if people don’t buy what you’re saying, you might want to try the following remedies. Note how closely these remedies follow the guidelines offered in Covey’s
Speed of Trust
:

 

• Say what needs to be said.
  Don’t hold back and qualify everything you say. Speak up when it’s the right thing to do.
  
 

• Don’t exaggerate or overpromise.
  Don’t commit to too many things. Don’t embellish and stretch the truth.
  
 

• Keep confidences.
  Don’t reveal personal information given to you in confidence.
  
 

• Take responsibility.
  Don’t look for others to blame.
  
 

• Step up to address issues.
  Don’t say things just to get along and to avoid trouble.
  
 

• Share information.
  Don’t hold back critical information.
  
 

• Follow through.
  Don’t avoid following through, especially on simple commitments.
  
 

• Put the team first.
  Don’t use
  I
  instead of
  we
  . Signal that you are thinking as a team.
  

In many ways, trust is the hardest concept to convey, and yet it’s also the easiest if you cut to the essence of what it means to be a trustworthy leader. Virgin entrepreneur Richard Branson might have said it best: “I try to treat people as human beings … if they
know you care, it brings out the best in them.”
⁶
Show your team that you care. Once you have clearly shown this, it will be easier to have open communication with them, and they will want to give you feedback that continues to keep the customer experience as memorable as it should be every time.

S
teve Jobs didn’t rely on focus groups, because he believed that people did not know what they wanted until you showed them. In some cases this was very true. Would you have agreed to pay ninety-nine cents a song in 2003 when you could otherwise download songs on the Internet for free? But Jobs realized what most people did not—music fans would pay for a better, seamless, and legal customer experience. In January 2010, would you have told Jobs that you wanted to carry around yet another device in addition to a mobile phone and a laptop computer? Jobs realized that people really wanted an ultra-portable device that would make it easier to do e-mail, browse the Internet, and enjoy photographs, video, and books. Nobody asked for the iPad, but they couldn’t buy enough of them. When it came to big innovations, Jobs did indeed rely on his intuition and imagination. But it is incorrect to assume that Apple never listens to its customer. The exact opposite is true. Apple listens to its customers all the time and more important, actively
solicits feedback from both its internal customers (employees) and external customers.

Feedback requires fearlessness and trust. That’s why fearlessness and trust come before feedback as far as the principles discussed in this book. A fearful employee will be unwilling to be open and honest in offering feedback about the company, its policies, or a manager. A fearful manager who hasn’t instilled trust will be defensive and unwilling to listen to constructive input.

Fearless employees will disagree with you, but they will offer valuable feedback when the opportunity presents itself. I read a story about Emma Sky, a British pacifist who was dedicated to getting the United States out of Iraq. In 2007 she became a key aide to General Ray Ordierno, the former commanding general of the U.S. forces in Iraq. The tiny British woman and the general (Ordierno is 6 feet, 5 inches) made an odd-looking pair, but she played an outsized role—she actively disagreed with Ordierno. She was assigned the role purposely to disagree with him! Ordierno is “fearless.”